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Reviews
Earth from Space (2019)
Beautifully executed documentary
Both awe-inspiring & relaxing to watch documentary on various observations made via satellites. The theme of the series is to showcase interesting places around the Earth, focusing on animals & various environments, while highlighting at times the impact humans can have on this fragile balance.
Personally I learned quite a few things each episode, thanks to the dynamic structure of the series - each episode showed multiple places around the world. That structure also helps to keep episode highly entertaining (as opposed to some other documentaries which focus on a certain theme for too long and tend to be a bit boring).
The narration is spot-on, it's not intrusive at all and let's you enjoy the imagery. After watching recently Chiwetel's directorial debut in "The boy who harnessed the wind" I developed great admiration for him, so I am glad he took part of this project.
My personal favorite thing about the series is the music & sound editing. They're both simply outstanding. As with the narration and cinematography, the music supplement the whole idea of the series with a more relaxing tone but yet very noticeable impact.
Looking forward to more projects from the same team who produced the series. They did an amazing job.
L.A. Takedown (1989)
"Heat" draft
Since I'm a fan of "Heat" I took the time to watch the preliminary material which Michael Mann created after long-lasting struggle to make his dream movie come true.
Mann decided that he waited enough for a big-time production and to use this great script for TV release with the intention to continue it to a TV series.
But, let's get to the point...
1. Pros:
1.1 I've read the 1994 revision of the script, which included unrealized shots and dialogue in the 1995's "Heat". The good thing about "L.A. Takedown" is that you have the chance to see some of those good lines and additional storyline, which serves as a bonus to what you already saw in "Heat".
1.2. Directing was very decent, but anyway I wouldn't recognize it that Mann stays behind it if I didn't knew already.
1.3 You can see the growth from the original version to the remake as Heat. Comparing LA Takedown to Heat you can recognize the development and decisions which Mann took in order to make "Heat" such a classic that it is.
2. Cons:
2.1 Poor Cast & Acting. Since it is TV low budget movie I guess we couldn't expect more but this was some "piece of work". Hanna's character was developed Okay, but that's all. Patrick McLaren (a.k.a. Neil in Heat) was a complete nightmare, it doesn't correspond to the image you can visualize in the script. I know that the benchmark is too high having such a great cast for Heat - comparison is out of the question.. Nevertheless those wanna-be actors on LA Takedown doesn't even deserve to be chosen for a porn movie with a storyline...
3. Bottom line: if you are a fan of "Heat" and Michael Mann - see it for the above mentioned pros.. It's like looking at the draft of Mona Lisa or some other masterpiece - so it is kinda of interesting... If you are not a fan - then it is a waste of time.